G8 protesters detained in police raid

6.00 pm - Update

GENOA - Italian police have raided the headquarters of the umbrella group behind anti-capitalist riots at the Group of Eight summit as world leaders meet for the final time tonight.

A police van rammed a gate to get into the grounds of the school where the Genoa Social Forum had set up its headquarters and living quarters during the summit, said Luisa Morgantini, an Italian member of the European Parliament.

Legal sources said 10 members of the Forum were detained and driven off in a police van. They included activists from Spain, France and Britain.

Witnesses said police also seized computer discs and other equipment in the midnight raid on a school the Forum had made its living quarters and headquarters since the summit started on Friday.

The school was about four kilometres from the "Red Zone" where G8 leaders are meeting.

The "Death in Genoa summit", tragically marked by the first death of a protester in two years of attacks on international economic gatherings, draws to a close with world leaders visibly traumatised by events of the past three days.

Their final act today will be a closing communique drawing together results of their deliberations over the past drama-filled days which put the very concept of G8 meetings of the world's richest nations under the microscope.

The leaders from Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Russia, Canada and the United States will leave parts of the ancient port of Genoa in ruins from anti-globalisation riots.

Police said they did not rule out a last effort by hardcore protesters, still enraged by the death of a young Italian shot by police yesterday, to disrupt the final hours of the summit.

It was not known if the raid on the forum was to head off new violence.

A ring of steel around the summit and a "zero tolerance" policy towards protesters has so far stopped demonstrators breaching the so-called "Red Zone" protecting the leaders.

Volleys of tear gas, water cannons and police charges kept mainly anarchists at bay as they tried to enter the zone.

Nearly 300 people have been injured and more than 100 arrested. Dozens more protesters were detained briefly.

"Virtually everyone agrees these protests grew out of people's real concerns linked to policies (by governments)," Russian President Vladimir Putin said. "People lack confidence."

"We were of course traumatised by the events that occurred around us", French President Jacques Chirac said.

US President George W. Bush said he was determined hardcore troublemakers would not win and stop international leaders having legitimate discussions.

"Those who claim to represent the voices of reform aren't doing so. Those protesters who try to shut down our talks on trade and aid don't represent the poor as far as I'm concerned," Bush said.

Bush, making his second visit to Europe in just over a month, was again dogged by splits with his European partners over the Kyoto pact on global warming.

Bush pulled out of the Kyoto pact in March, saying its provisions for cutting greenhouse gas emissions would damage the US economy.

But Bush said the G8 leaders had the right to leave Genoa with their heads held high.

He said progress was made toward solving problems of poor countries and toward launching new world trade talks.

Summit leaders also agreed on a new fund to fight AIDS and united to demand an end to conflicts in the Middle East, Macedonia and on the Korean peninsula.

"The poor of the world spoke very clearly and eloquently about the need for nations such as ours to open up our markets, nations such as ours to help develop education infrastructures, nations such as ours to forgive debt...it's been a very productive meeting," Bush said.

The G8 leaders dined on Friday with the leaders of Mali, Nigeria, South Africa, Algeria, Bangladesh and El Salvador.

When the leaders meet again in Canada, it is certain to be in a far more remote location and in far smaller numbers.

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said he planned a slimmed down 2002 meeting and it might be held in a Rocky Mountain hideaway which would be easier to police.

"There are too many people," Chretien told reporters.

Italian prosecutors announced they had opened an investigation into the paramilitary policeman involved in the fatal shooting of Carlo Giuliani, 23, who attacked a Carabinieri jeep with other protesters during Friday's unrest.

The proceedings will determine whether murder or manslaughter charges should be brought, or whether the officer was acting in self-defence.

A Genoa police spokeswoman said Giuliani, who was unemployed and homeless, had a police record and faced a series of pending charges including illegal arms possession.

- REUTERS